Venezuela's Interim Leader Defends Right to Diplomatic Ties With 'China, Russia, Iran and Cuba' Despite U.S. Pressure

Rodríguez then added that Venezuela had nonetheless chosen diplomacy as its response. "We have the right to have diplomatic relations with China, with Russia, with Iran, with Cuba, with all the peoples of the world. Also with the United States. We are a sovereign nation," Rodríguez said.

Her remarks come as the Trump administration presses Caracas to abandon economic and political ties with U.S. adversaries in exchange for greater access to Venezuela's oil sector. According to people familiar with the plan, U.S. officials have told Rodríguez that Venezuela must expel China, Russia, Iran and Cuba and partner exclusively with the United States on oil production and sales, as ABC News reported earlier this month.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told lawmakers earlier this month that Washington believed it could force Caracas's hand by controlling oil shipments and tankers, which U.S. officials say are currently full.

President Donald Trump has publicly backed that strategy, announcing that Venezuela's interim authorities would hand over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of oil to be sold under U.S. oversight. Trump has also ordered a blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers and warned that no further shipments should go to Cuba.

Venezuela's interim government rejected that approach publicly last week, invoking historical grievances with Washington and criticizing what she called the legacy of the Monroe Doctrine, which she said stands in opposition to Venezuela's Bolivarian project:

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ratifies its historic position in the framework of relations with the Republic of Cuba, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law, the free exercise of self-determination and national sovereignty"

Elsewhere in her speech, Rodriguez made a direct reference to the recent talks between Donald Trump and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who gifted Trump her Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, saying that: 'if one day it were my turn to go to Washington as interim president, I would do so with dignity, standing, walking with my head held high and carrying the tricolor flag. It would be standing up — never crawling.'"